That diary has become one of the most important historical documents
of British history. What makes his diary important (and fascinating) to
historians and scholars is that it forms a unique account of day-to-day
life of someone who lived through that period.

But it almost didn't happen. Pepys didn't keep his diary with any
intention of having historians, scholars, and regular people read it 400
years after he wrote it. He wrote large sections of it in code. Given
that it was never intended to be published, someone had to find it,
realise its importantce, and then publish it.

If that part hadn't happened, as a global society we would have lost something that aided our understanding of how we developed.

A problem with history is that you never know who's going to be
important, famous, or infamous before they are. And when they become so,
we generally want to know everything about them.

So doesn't that argue the case for a system whereby we copy
everything — every single private and public bit that goes over the
internet for every man, woman, and child, in every country — such that
future generations can benefit from a total and complete archive of
humanity's digital life, just in case we can dig out some sociologically
important nuggets?